What’s New: “Our content, our original intellectual property
and our distribution have all grown pretty rapidly,” says Matt
Diamond, CEO of Alloy Digital, which plans to launch Clevver
Chat, using a talk-show format. Alloy last week acqiured video
distributor Digital Broadcasting Group. In November, it acquired
gaming site The Escapist, and last June it picked up Clevver
Media, operator of entertainment-focused YouTube Channels.

What’s in Store: Alloy will be showcasing its Smosh Channel, which is popular with 12-34 year olds. The
company will also be talking about tentpole programs being
produced between this fall and spring 2014. There’s a second
season of Chasing, a series in which contestants follow a band on the road. In its first year,
Xbox was an advertising partner and cable channel Fuse was a distribution and advertising
partner. New programs include Thirty Days to Popular, a scripted comedy show; Dorm Biz, which
Diamond describes as The Apprentice meets Shark Tank; and Espressologist, based on the YA
novel of the same name. There’s also a nonscripted project featuring people redoing their high
school musical for their high school reunion.

What’s at Stake: Diamond says in a successful NewFront, programs would be sold to advertisers
because of the event. “Ideally you start a trend and advertisers are aware that this is the time frame
to take a good look at these programs and if you’re interested, to step up and support them,” he says.

CBS INTERACTIVE

What’s New: CBS Interactive is new this year at the
NewFronts. CBSI has more than 70 original Web series
and generates 280 million global unique visitors each
month. Some series are extensions of CBS shows, such
as Live on Letterman and 60 Minutes Overtime. With
CBS airing the Super Bowl and the Grammys earlier this
year, CBS Interactive had tentpoles that represented
two of the largest streaming events ever online. “We’re
learning what users want online as it relates to major
events,” says Jim Lanzone, president of CBSI.

What’s in Store: The company plans to introduce a number of new original shows. It recently
launched ACM Sessions, featuring performances by top country music acts, and Power of Observation, spinning off from the CBS series Elementary. The company also recently
released the CBS App for iPhone and iPad and a CBS Sports app for iPhone and Android.

What’s at Stake: Lanzone says that while CBS’ TV upfront focuses on the broadcast network, at
the NewFront, media buyers’ attention will be on the broad range of properties from CBS Interactive.
Aside from the CBS properties, they include CNet and video games. “It’s always good to be able
to show people the full breadth of original video content we have across our brand,” Lanzone says.

CRACKLE

What’s New: Crackle, a division of Sony Pictures Television, did not participate in last year’s
NewFronts. The free, ad-supported network spent the year launching a number of full-length
programs. It created a new dedicated sales team separate from the Sony Pictures Television
sales team, with reps in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Crackle also built
out its distribution, creating 20 apps for mobile devices, gaming consoles and smart TVs.

What’s in Store: “This year we’re doubling our efforts on the volume of original content that we’re
doing,” says Eric Berger, executive VP of Digital Networks for Sony. Crackle is producing a second
season of Chosen, an action series starring Milo Ventimiglia. Ford is an integrated sponsor of the
show. It will also make 24 new episodes of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

What’s at Stake: A theme of Crackle’s presentation will be New Network, New Living Room. “The
living room has not only changed inside with connected TVs and game consoles and streaming
boxes, but the living room is everywhere. It’s mobile devices, it’s PCs, it’s anywhere the consumer
want to access video-on-demand,” Berger says. “This is a new network. It’s not just an aggregated
site of video. It really fits into the definition that we use with the 100-plus networks inside of Sony
Pictures Television Worldwide, meaning it’s a programmed experience targeted to a demographic.”

DISNEY INTERACTIVE
ENTERTAINMENT

What’s New: Disney Interactive Entertainment will be introducing
new products that build on Walt Disney Co.’s heritage
of storytelling and bringing that to the interactive world, says
senior VP Mark Walker, adding, “We have a great deal in
the hopper.” Also new at Disney Interactive Entertainment
is VP of national sales Josh Mattison, previously with Federated
Media.

What’s in Store: A recent success story has been Swampy’s
Underground Adventure, a Web series on Disney.com that
grew out of the iPhone and iPad game app, Where’s My Water, that has been downloaded
100 million times. Now Swampy appears in interstitials on Disney Channel. The game was
also used by Microsoft as part of the Windows 8 launch. Swampy is an example of intellectual
property that “wasn’t video when it starts, but it became high-quality video and then it was
distributed not just on our dotcom destinations, but across all the different ways that people
are accessing video in their living rooms and on the go,” Mattison says. Other new products
include OMD (Oh My Disney), an editorial site, and the mobile game Mittens.

What’s at Stake: Disney Interactive is not expected to be profitable this year, partly because
the introduction of the video game DisneyInfinity, which features a host of Disney characters,
was delayed three months until August. The game is likely to be featured in Disney’s New-
Fronts presentation.

HULU

What’s New: At last year’s DigiFront, Hulu announced
four original series: The Awesomes, Don’t
Quit Your Daydream, We Got Next and Flow.

What’s in Store: Hulu said it will also be presenting
comedic thriller The Wrong Mans and a docuseriesBehind the Mask, about sports
mascots, at the DigiFronts. Earlier this year, Hulu
also began airing shows from France and Israel as
“Hulu Exclusive series.” “It’s a thrill to share what
we have planned in 2013,” Andy Forssell, Hulu’s
acting CEO and senior VP of content, says in a statement. Hulu declined to make an executive
available to discuss the digital upfronts.

What’s at Stake: Hulu’s future is up in the air. It was reported that Chernin Group CEO Peter
Chernin, who helped launch Hulu when he was president of News Corp., has offered to buy
the streaming site, which is controlled by News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Comcast. News
Corp. and Disney have had disagreements over Hulu’s future and have discussed buying each
other out or selling to a third party.

YAHOO

What’s New: Yahoo produces and distributes more than 50 original made-for-Web shows
and more than 400 episodes per month for those shows. This includes programming from
the in-house production studio Yahoo Studios. Two of Yahoo’s originals have gone from
Web to TV: Burning Love, picked up by E!, and Cybergeddon, which has been bought in
international markets.

What’s in Store: “We will demonstrate our users’ daily video watching habits, unveil some
new original shows with talent joining us on stage, and we will be showcasing our advertiser
technology,” a Yahoo representative says. Yahoo declined to make an executive available to
discuss its DigiFronts strategy because that strategy was changing at presstime.

What’s at Stake: Yahoo brought on Marissa Mayer nine months ago as CEO to focus the Internet
company’s business. Yahoo’s stock is up, but whatever changes the former Google exec
has made, the word has not filtered down to Madison Avenue, according to recent reports.
Senior executives at big media agencies recently told Advertising Age that because they don’t
have a good sense of the company’s strategy, Yahoo is less relevant when people are thinking
about digital marketing.